Transaction card

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to a process for producing an opaque, transparent or translucent transaction card having multiple features, such as a holographic foil, integrated circuit chip, silver magnetic stripe with text on the magnetic stripe, opacity gradient, an invisible optically recognizable compound, a translucent signature field such that the signature on back of the card is visible from the front of the card and an active thru date on the front of the card. The invisible optically recognizable compound is preferably an infrared ink comprising an infrared phthalocyanine dye, an infrared phosphor, and a quantum dot energy transfer compound. The infrared ink can be detected by a sensor found in an ATM or card assembly line.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application claims priority to and is a Continuation of U.S.patent application Ser. No. 12/907,358, filed Oct. 19, 2010 and entitled“TRANSACTION CARD.” The '358 application claims the benefit of and is aContinuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/879,468, filed Jul.17, 2007, which issued as U.S. Pat. No. 7,837,116 on Nov. 23, 2010. The'468 application is a Continuation-In-Part application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 10/394,914, filed Mar. 21, 2003, which issued asU.S. Pat. No. 7,377,443 on May 27, 2008. The '914 application is aContinuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/092,681, filed Mar.7, 2002, which issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,764,014 on Jul. 20, 2004. The'681 application is a Continuation-In-Part application of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 10/062,106, filed Jan. 31, 2002, which issued asU.S. Pat. No. 6,749,123 on Jun. 15, 2004. The '106 application is aContinuation-In-Part application of U.S. patent application Ser. No.09/653,837, filed Sep. 1, 2000, which issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,581,839on Jun. 24, 2003. The '837 application further claims the benefit ofU.S. Provisional Application No. 60/153,112, filed Sep. 7, 1999; U.S.Provisional Application No. 60/160,519, filed Oct. 20, 1999; U.S.Provisional Application No. 60/167,405, filed Nov. 24, 1999; and U.S.Provisional Patent Application No. 60/171,689, filed Dec. 21, 1999. Allthese aforementioned applications are hereby incorporated by referenceherein.

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to a transaction card, and moreparticularly, to the fabrication and use of an optically recognizabletransparent or translucent transaction card that may contain a hologram,magnetic stripe or integrated circuit as well as other transaction cardconstituents.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The proliferation of transaction cards, which allow the cardholder topay with credit rather than cash, started in the United States in theearly 1950s. Initial transaction cards were typically restricted toselect restaurants and hotels and were often limited to an exclusiveclass of individuals. Since the introduction of plastic credit cards,the use of transaction cards have rapidly proliferated from the UnitedStates, to Europe, and then to the rest of the world. Transaction cardsare not only information carriers, but also typically allow a consumerto pay for goods and services without the need to constantly possesscash, or if a consumer needs cash, transaction cards allow access tofunds through an automatic teller machine (ATM). Transaction cards alsoreduce the exposure to the risk of cash loss through theft and reducethe need for currency exchanges when traveling to various foreigncountries. Due to the advantages of transaction cards, hundreds ofmillions of cards are now produced and issued annually, therebyresulting in need for companies to differentiate their cards fromcompetitor's cards.

Initially, the transaction cards often included the issuer's name, thecardholder's name, the card number, and the expiration date embossedonto the card. The cards also usually included a signature field on theback of the card for the cardholder to provide a signature to protectagainst forgery and tempering. Thus, the initial cards merely served asdevices to provide data to merchants and the only security associatedwith the card was the comparison of the cardholder's signature on thecard to the cardholder's signature on a receipt along with the embossedcardholder name on the card. However, many merchants often forget toverify the signature on the receipt with the signature on the card.

Due to the popularity of transaction cards, numerous companies, banks,airlines, trade groups, sporting teams, clubs and other organizationshave developed their own transaction cards. As such, many companiescontinually attempt to differentiate their transaction cards andincrease market share not only by offering more attractive financingrates and low initiation fees, but also by offering unique,aesthetically pleasing features on the transaction cards. As such, manytransaction cards included not only demographic and account information,but the transaction cards also include graphic images, designs,photographs and security features. A recent security feature is theincorporation of a diffraction grating, or holographic image, into thetransaction card which appears to be three dimensional and whichsubstantially restricts the ability to fraudulently copy or reproducetransaction cards because of the need for extremely complex systems andapparatus for producing holograms. A hologram is produced by interferingtwo or more beams of light, namely an object beam and reference beam,onto a photoemulsion to thereby record the interference pattern producedby the interfering beams of light. The object beam is a coherent beamreflected from, or transmitted through, the object to be recorded, suchas a company logo, globe, character or animal. The reference beam isusually a coherent, collimated light beam with a spherical wave front.After recording the interference pattern, a similar wavelength referencebeam is used to produce a holographic image by reconstructing the imagefrom the interference pattern.

However, in typical situations, a similar laser beam is not available toreconstruct the image from the interference pattern on the card. Assuch, the hologram should be able to be viewed with ordinary, whitelight. Thus, when a hologram is recorded onto a transaction card, theimage to be recorded is placed near the surface of the substrate toallow the resulting hologram to be visible in ordinary, white light.These holograms are known as reflective surface holograms or rainbowholograms. A reflective hologram can be mass-produced on metallic foiland subsequently stamped onto transaction cards. Moreover, theincorporation of holograms onto transaction cards provides a morereliable method of determining the authenticity of the transaction cardin ordinary white light, namely by observing if the hologram has theillusion of depth and changing colors.

Administrative and security issues, such as charges, credits, merchantsettlement, fraud, reimbursements, etc., have increased due to theincreasing use of transaction cards. Thus, the transaction card industrystarted to develop more sophisticated transaction cards which allowedthe electronic reading, transmission, and authorization of transactioncard data for a variety of industries. For example, magnetic stripecards, optical cards, smart cards, calling cards, and supersmart cardshave been developed to meet the market demand for expanded features,functionality, and security. In addition to the visual data, theincorporation of a magnetic stripe on the back of a transaction cardallows digitized data to be stored in machine readable form. As such,magnetic stripe reader are used in conjunction with magnetic stripecards to communicate purchase data received from a cash register deviceonline to a host computer along with the transmission of data stored inthe magnetic stripe, such as account information and expiration date.

Due to the susceptibility of the magnetic stripe to tampering, the lackof confidentiality of the information within the magnetic stripe and theproblems associated with the transmission of data to a host computer,integrated circuits were developed which could be incorporated intotransaction cards. These integrated circuit (IC) cards, known as smartcards, proved to be very reliable in a variety of industries due totheir advanced security and flexibility for future applications.

As magnetic stripe cards and smart cards developed, the market demandedinternational standards for the cards. The card's physical dimensions,features and embossing area were standardized under the InternationalStandards Organization (“ISO”), ISO 7810 and ISO 7811. The issuer'sidentification, the location of particular compounds, codingrequirements, and recording techniques were standardized in ISO 7812 andISO 7813, while chip card standards were established in ISO 7813. Forexample, ISO 7811 defines the standards for the magnetic stripe which isa 0.5 inch stripe located either in the front or rear surface of thecard which is divided into three longitudinal parallel tracks. The firstand second tracks hold read-only information with room for 79 alphanumeric characters and 40 numeric characters, respectively. The thirdtrack is reserved for financial transactions and includes encipheredversions of the user's personal identification number, country code,currency units, amount authorized per cycle, subsidiary accounts, andrestrictions. More information regarding the features and specificationsof transaction cards can be found in, for example, Smart Cards by JoseLuis Zoreda and Jose Manuel Oton, 1994; Smart Card Handbook by W. Rankland W. Effing, 1997, and the various ISO standards for transaction cardsavailable from ANSI (American National Standards Institute), 11 West42nd Street, New York, N.Y. 10036, the entire contents of all of thesepublications are herein incorporated by reference.

The incorporation of machine-readable components onto transactions cardsencouraged the proliferation of devices to simplify transactions byautomatically reading from and/or writing onto transaction cards. Suchdevices include, for example, bar code scanners, magnetic stripereaders, point of sale terminals (POS), automated teller machines (ATM)and card-key devices. With respect to ATMs, the total number of ATMdevices shipped in 1999 is 179,274 (based on Nilson Reports data)including the ATMs shipped by the top ATM manufacturers, namely NCR(138-18 231st Street, Laurelton, N.Y. 11413), Diebold (5995 Mayfair,North Canton, Ohio 44720-8077), Fujitsu (11085 N. Torrey Pines Road, LaJolla, Calif. 92037), Omron (Japan), OKI (Japan) and Triton.

Many of the card acceptance devices require that the transaction card beinserted into the device such that the device can appropriately alignits reading head with the relevant component of the transaction card.Particularly, many ATMs require that a transaction card be substantiallyinserted into a slot in the ATM. After insertion of the card into theslot, the ATM may have an additional mechanical device for furtherretracting the transaction card into the ATM slot. To activate the ATM,the ATM typically includes a sensor, such as a phototransistor and alight emitting diode (LED), which emits light onto a card surface andthe phototransistor receives light from the LED. A card blocks theinfrared radiation from the phototransistor, therefore indicating that acard has been detected. A typical LED in an ATM is an IRED (infraredemitting diode) source having a wavelength in the range of about 820-920nm or 900-1000 nm (see FIG. 5), which is not present in ambient light atthe levels needed by a phototransistor sensor. The spectral sensitivitycurve of the typical phototransistor is in the range of about 400nm-1100 nm (see FIG. 6). However, the visible spectrum is about 400nm-700 nm, and the spectral sensitivity of the phototransistor is about60% at 950 nm and 90% at 840 nm, Thus, visible light is not part of theanalog-to-digital algorithm. Moreover, ISO 7810, clause 8.10 requiresthat all machine readable cards have an optical transmission densityfrom 450 nm-950 nm, greater than 1.3 (less than 5% transmission) andfrom 950 nm-1000 nm, greater than 1.1 (less than 7.9% transmission).

For the card to be detected by the ATM, the light is typically blockedby the card body. Moreover, the amount of light necessary to be blockedby a card is related to the voltage data received from the analog todigital conversion. The voltage range of the sensor is typically in arange of about 1.5V to 4.5V. When a card is inserted into a sensor, thevoltage drops to less than 1.5V indicating the presence of a card in thetransport system. After the card is detected by the phototransistor, themagnetic stripe reader scans the magnetic stripe and acquires theinformation recorded on the magnetic stripe. A manufacturer of the LEDsensor device in an ATM is, for example, Omron and Sankyo-Seiki ofJapan, 4800 Great America Parkway, Suite 201, Santa Clara, Calif. 95054.

As previously mentioned, transaction cards and readers typically followvarious ISO standards which specifically set forth the location of carddata and compounds. However, because numerous companies producedifferent versions of ATMs, the location of the sensor within the ATM isnot subject to standardization requirements. In the past, the varyinglocations of the sensor within the ATM did not affect the ability of theATM to sense the transaction card because the transaction card includeda substantially opaque surface, such that any portion of the opaquetransaction card could interrupt the IRED emission and activate theinsert phototransistor. However, more recently, to provide a uniqueimage, and to meet consumer demand, companies have attempted to developtransparent or translucent transaction cards. The use of a transparentcard would often not activate the insert phototransistor because theIRED emission would not sufficiently reflect off of a transparentsurface, so the radiation would simply travel through the card andbecome detected by the phototransistor. The machine, therefore, couldnot detect the presence of the card, and often jammed the equipment.

In an attempt to solve this problem, companies have printed opaque areasonto transparent cards in an effort to provide an opaque area toactivate the input sensors on ATMs. However, due to the aforementionedvariations in the location of the sensor in many ATMs, the use oflimited opaque areas on a transparent card did not allow the card toactivate the sensor in a sufficient number of ATMs. Alternatively,companies attempted to incorporate a lens onto a transaction card in aneffort to redirect the LED light. However, during the card manufactureprocess, which often involves substantial pressure and heat, the lensingsurface would be disrupted or destroyed. As such, a need exists for atransparent or translucent transaction card which is capable ofactivating an input sensor, wherein the input sensor may interface thecard in a variety of locations.

Furthermore, during the card fabrication process, the cards must bedetected on the assembly line in order to accurately count the number ofcards produced during a predetermined time interval. To count the cards,typical card fabrication assembly lines include counters with LEDsensors, similar to the ATM sensors, which count the cards based uponthe reflection of the LED light beam off of the opaque card surface. Theproduction of transparent transaction cards suffers from similarlimitations as ATM devices in that the LED beam does not reflect or isnot sufficiently absorbed from a transparent surface. Thus, atransparent card is needed that can be produced on existing assemblylines. Similar problems exist when cards are punched to finaldimensions.

Although existing systems may allow for the identification and detectionof articles, most contain a number of drawbacks. For example,identification features based on UV, visible light detection, etc. aresometimes difficult to view, often require certain lighting requirementsand typically depend on the distance between the article and thedetection device. Additionally, the use of certain types of plastic,paper or other material which contain the identification mark may belimited by the particular identification device. For example, opaquematerials typically deactivate the phototransistors in ATM's by blockinglight in both the visible (near IR) and far IR light regions.Furthermore, the incorporation of a detection or authentication featureinto a card product requires a separate material or process step duringthe card fabrication process. The incorporation of a new material orprocess step often requires expensive modifications to current equipmentor new equipment and often extends the time for fabricating the cardproduct.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a process for producing a transparentor translucent transaction card having any one or more features, such asa holographic foil, integrated circuit chip, silver magnetic stripe withtext on the magnetic stripe, opacity gradient, an optically recognizableink or film contained within the construction of the card, a translucentsignature field such that the signature on back of the card is visiblefrom the front of the card and an “active thru” date on the front of thecard. The card is optically recognizable due to an invisible ortransparent infrared ink or film which is distributed over the card'ssurface, thereby allowing the card to block (absorb, refract, diffuseand/or reflect) infrared light and transmit all other light.Particularly, when the transaction card is inserted into an ATM device,the light beam from the IRED is blocked by the infrared ink or film,thereby deactivating the phototransistor. Moreover, during themanufacturer of transaction cards, the optically recognizable cardallows an IRED light beam from a personalization device, inspection unitor counter device to count the number of transaction cards produced inan assembly line.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

A more complete understanding of the present invention may be derived byreferring to the detailed description and claims when considered inconnection with the following illustrative figures, which may not be toscale. In the following figures, like reference numbers or steps referto similar compounds throughout the figures.

FIG. 1 is a front view of an exemplary transaction card in accordancewith an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a back view of an exemplary transaction card in accordancewith an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of the card fabrication process in accordancewith an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a graph of energy v. wavelength for the reflection andtransmission of IR film in accordance with an exemplary embodiment ofthe present invention;

FIG. 5 is a graph of a typical IRED (infrared emitting diode) source inan ATM having a wavelength in the range of about 820-920 nm or 900-1000nm in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a graph of a spectral sensitivity curve of a typicalphototransistor having a wavelength in the range of about 400 nm-1100 nmin accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 7A-7J show various embodiments of card layers in accordance withexemplary embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of an exemplary sensor mechanism within anATM in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 is an exemplary reflection and transmission monitor with variousoptical components for vacuum evaporation in-line roll coatingoperations for monitoring the IR film in accordance with an exemplaryembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 shows an exemplary system for chemical vapor deposition of PETfilm in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 11 shows exemplary embodiments of layers for card construction inaccordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 12A shows exemplary film bond strengths on a graph of strength(lb/in) v. film bond for various film bonds in accordance with anexemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 12B shows exemplary bond strengths at the film interfaces on agraph of strength (lb/in) v. film interface for various film interfacesin accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 13 shows exemplary IR ink ingredients which exhibit a green colorin accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 14 shows measurements related to these exemplary green cards inaccordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 15 shows exemplary ATM test results for the exemplary green cardsin accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 16 shows an example of the transmission density of exemplary greencards in a graph of percent transmission v. wavelength in accordancewith an exemplary embodiment of the present invention; and,

FIGS. 17A-17I show exemplary test results for various card embodimentsin a graph of percent transmission v. wavelength (nm) in accordance withan exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF DETAILED EMBODIMENTS

In general, the present invention allows for the identification anddetection of various articles, wherein the articles include materialshaving machine recognizable compounds. The articles include, forexample, transaction cards, documents, papers and/or the like. Thematerials include, for example, coatings, films, threads, plastics,inks, fibers, paper, planchettes, and/or the like.

In an exemplary embodiment, the machine recognizable compounds areoptically recognizable compounds containing infrared blocking(absorbing, refracting, diffusing, reflecting or otherwise blocking)ingredients. The optically recognizable compounds may be invisible,visible, or colored to produce a desired effect and/or they may containother detectable compounds, such as, for example, UV-Fluorescent orIR-Fluorescent features. The optical compounds preferably have goodstability, resistance properties, durability and other physicalproperties, such as good appearance, flexibility, hardness, solventresistance, water resistance, corrosion resistance and exteriorstability. Moreover, the use of such compounds typically does notinterfere with UV compounds that may be present in many substrates. Oneskilled in the art will appreciate that the optically recognizablecompound is any chemical, solution, dye, ink substrate, material and/orthe like which is recognizable by a sensor. In an exemplary embodiment,the optically recognizable ink is an infrared ink which blocks, absorbsor reflects most infrared light, but transmits most other wavelengths oflight.

In an exemplary embodiment, the optically recognizable compound isincorporated into a material in the form of a film, plastic, fiber, ink,concentrate, thermoplastic or thermoset matrix, thread, planchette,and/or other medium which contains in the range of about 0.001 to 40.0wt. (%) of a compound derived from organic or inorganic materials. Theinfrared ink may be applied to card 5 (see FIG. 1) by, for example, ascreen printing process or any other printing or coating means such aslithography, gravure, flexo, calender coating, curtain coating, rollercoating and/or the like. An exemplary screen printing process utilizes ascreen press equipped with drying equipment (UV curable or convectionheat) and a screen with a specific mesh size of about 80 lines/cm. TheIR ink is printed across any portion of the entire card surface ofplastic using a silk screen press, as described below.

Because the relative eye sensitivity of an ordinary observer for aspecified level of illumination is between around 400-770 nm, infraredink at over 770 nm is preferable because it is invisible to the humaneye in normal white light. As such, the invisible infrared material willnot substantially obscure the transparent surface of card 5.Additionally, the exemplary ink withstands card production temperaturesof about 200 F to 400 F degrees and includes a “light fastness period”(which is the resistance of the ink to fade or degrade in the presenceof any light, and specifically, UV light) of about at least three yearsunder normal credit card usage conditions. Moreover, the exemplary inkblocks, absorbs or reflects the spectral output of IRED's, such as, forexample, the Sankyo Seiki LED's, which is about 800-1000 nm. Theexemplary ink also limits the light reaching the phototransistors, sothe presence of a clear card having the ink is detected in a transactionmachine, such as, for example, a card grabbing-type ATM machine.

Exemplary compositions of the machine recognizable compounds of thepresent invention comprise a mixture of a wide variety of compounds. Theactive compounds are derived of inorganic, organometallic, or organiclayered materials or rare earth compounds, most commonly rare earthoxides, oxysulfides or oxyhalides. The compounds are relatively inert,so the effects on the performance properties of the final product areminimized. The infrared compound comprises either a dye, layeredmaterial, pigment and/or encapsulated pigment that is dispersed in aparticular medium which can be incorporated into a wide variety ofend-usable products. The particle size of the infrared compound allowsthe materials (plastic, thread, ink, etc.) to optimally be dispersed ordissolved and uniformly exist within the articles which it isincorporated.

Conventionally known infrared materials comprising layered dielectricand metallic materials or doped rare-earth materials can be effectivelyused as pigments for compounds in accordance with exemplary embodimentsof the present invention. In this context, the pigments or dyes absorbspecific wavelengths of energy and may change one wavelength of energyto another. The energy conversions or absorptions may be above or belowany stimulation within the electromagnetic spectrum. The compounds mayabsorb specific wavelengths of light or change from one color to anotheror the compounds may change from invisible to visible and/or the like.The infrared compounds of the present invention are thus incorporatedinto a system which reversibly changes one wavelength of energy toanother, hence causing a “fingerprint”-type of detectable feature withinthe articles.

Moreover, the prepared films or materials can be mixed with a binder toform infrared compounds for use in threads, fibers, coatings, and thelike. Binders that can be incorporated in the present invention includeconventional additives such as waxes, thermoplastic resins, thermosetresins, rubbers, natural resins or synthetic resins. Such examples ofsuch binders are, polypropylene, nylon, polyester, ethylene-vinylacetate copolymer, polyvinyl acetate, polyethylene, chlorinated rubber,acrylic, epoxy, butadiene-nitrile, shellac, zein, cellulose,polyurethane, polyvinylbutyrate, vinyl chloride, silicone, polyvinylalcohol, polyvinyl methyl ether, nitrocellulose, polyamide,bismaleimide, polyimide, epoxy-polyester hybrid and/or the like. Filmsthat can be used include polyester, polyvinylchloride, polypropylene,polyethylene, acrylic, polycarbonate and/or the like. As discussedbelow, any film can be laminated or adhered to common card articlesusing heat, adhesives, or a combination of both.

If the content of the compound is too low, adequate blocking may not beachieved and the phototransistor may not send the proper signal to thecapture device, which will mean that the card will not be detected.Therefore, the infrared compounds are usually present in the compositionat a total amount from about 1 ppm to 80.0 wt. (%), and preferably fromabout 0.25%-25.0% by weight. Moreover, the present inventioncontemplates that other materials such as, for example, UV absorbers,reflectors, antioxidants, and/or optical brighteners, may be added inorder to achieve better resistance properties, aesthetics, or longevityof the materials.

Particularly, other materials may be added to allow for color shiftsfrom one color to another color after stimulation. Commonly employedmaterials such as dyes, pigments, fluorescent dyes, luminous pigments,and/or the like, can be used to promote reversible color changes fromone color state to another color state. Such materials can beincorporated directly with the infrared compounds during initialprocessing or may be added after the infrared compounds have beenprocessed. The use of materials such as solvents, water, glycols, and/orthe like can be added to adjust rheological properties of the material.Also, the use of surfactants, defoamers, release agents, adhesionpromoters, leveling agents, and/or the like may be added to theformulations for improved processing properties. Optical brighteningmaterials may also be added to ensure whiteness in a colorless state andto maintain a low level of contrast between many substrates whereinfrared compounds are located.

In an embodiment of the present invention, an IR-blocking and/orabsorbing ink may be printed onto one or more layers of a financialtransaction card. The ink preferably comprises a combination of a pure,recrystallized infrared phthalocyanine dye, an inorganic infraredphosphor, and a quantum dot energy transfer-based compounds. Thesematerials may be combined together and printed on one or more layers ofthe financial transaction card. The combination of materials, coupledwith separation of layers using printing methods, allows infraredradiation absorption to occur, and energy transfer to occur between theinfrared phthalocyanine dye, the phosphor, and the quantum dot compound.The absorption of infrared radiation, reflection and/or emission istypically transferred from one molecule to another, thereby resulting inenergy transference from one molecule to another, resulting in specificinfrared radiation becoming absorbed, trapped and, ultimately, blockedfrom passing through the financial transaction card.

Without being limited by theory, it is believed that non-radiativeenergy transfer of excitation energy occurs between energy donor andenergy acceptor. In this case, it is believed that energy absorbed bythe phthalocyanine dye is trapped by the inorganic infrared phosphor andthe quantum dot material. Therefore, visible radiation emitted by thephosphor is quenched by the quantum dot material. Moreover, separateprinting of multiple layers of the ink described herein, in combinationwith various thermoplastic substrates, provides birefringementproperties as well due to differences in refractive indices, furtherincreasing the IR-blocking and absorbing capability of a financialtransaction card described herein.

Such non-classical transfer of energy, as described above, is typicallyexplained in terms of the concept of an “exciplex,” an excited complexof two or more molecules arising when an excited molecule comes incontact with a non-excited molecule. However, it is noted that in thepresent invention, it appears that exciplex formation occurs even whenthe electronic spectra of donor and acceptor are separate. It isbelieved that after photo excitation via infrared radiation having awavelength between about 800 nm to about 1000 nm and greater, the donorcollides with the acceptor and an electron transfer to free orbit of theacceptor takes place. An electron is then transferred from this orbit tothe ground (non-excited) state of the donor, which is not thenaccompanied by emission of a photonic quantum. The process is amplifiedby the materials that are used being removed from solution by theprinting process' solvent evaporation and resin bonding to the inkbinder. This process provides a much more rigid absorption of infraredradiation. A proper binder is selected to allow the materials to resinbond after printing and further bond during the lamination process.

The pure, recrystallized phthalocyanine dyes of the present inventionmay include phthalocyanines having the ability to absorb infraredradiation, such as between about 700 nm and about 1000 nm. Preferably,these phthalocyanine dyes include antimony core complexes, althoughother core metal complexes may be utilized, such as nickel, platinum,palladium, or any other metal atom that contributes to thephthalocyanine's infrared radiation absorbing capability. Moreover,phthalocyanine dyes including halogen functional groups may be utilized.Preferably, fluoride is used as a halogen functional group, however, anyother halogen may be utilized that is apparent to one having ordinaryskill in the art. The phthalocyanine dyes may be chosen to provide abroad range of infrared absorption. Most preferably, an antimony corefluoride phthalocyanine dye is used for the present invention.

Preferably, one or more phthalocyanine dyes having infrared absorptionpeaks at 850 nm and 1000 nm are utilized. A combination of two or morephthalocyanine dyes are preferably used. Moreover, the phthalocyaninedyes of the present invention may be present in an amount between about0.0001 wt. % and about 1 wt. %, either alone or in combination.Exemplary phthalocyanine dyes may be obtained from Indigo Science,Newark, N.J., and include Indigo 5547a phthalocyanine dye having anabsorption peak of 850 nm, and Indigo 1000a phthalocyanine dye having anabsorption peak of 1000 nm.

The inorganic infrared phosphors utilized in the present invention maybe based on Y, Yb, Ho, Gd and Er-doped rare earth oxide compounds.Preferably, the phosphors may include Gd203, Er203, Y203, YF3, eitheralone or in combination. The phosphors may be utilized singly, or incombination, and may be present in an amount between about 0.01 wt. %and about 5 wt %.

The quantum dot energy transfer-based compounds may include quantum dotmaterial having from about C9 to about C27 ligands and may be present,either singly or in combination in an amount between about 0.0002 wt. %and about 7.0 wt. %.

The materials described above may be combined together with binders,resins, catalysts, and other compounds useful for creating an ink fromthe materials. Preferably, solvent may be utilized, includingpreferably, 2-ethoxy-ethyl propionate, ethyl acetate, n-propyl acetate,ethyl alcohol, n-propanol, methyl ethyl ketone. The solvent may bepresent in an amount between about 5 wt. % and about 60 wt. %. Resinsuseful for the present invention include VMCH, YMCA, polyamide,polyester, linseed alkyl resins and acrylic, and may be present in anamount between about 8 wt. % and about 35 wt. %. A silane-type catalystmay be used to help bond the phthalocyanine dye to the resin.Specifically, the silane-type catalyst may be used to ring-open thephthalocyanine dye molecule and help the molecule bind to the resin,such as, for example, acrylic. A preferably silane-type catalyst include3-amino-propyl triethoxy silane, although the present invention shouldnot be limited, as stated herein. The silane-type catalyst may bepresent in an amount between about 0.005 wt. % and about 2.00 wt. %.Most preferably, the silane-type catalyst is present at about 500 ppm.

The materials described above are combined together and printed to oneor more layers of a financial transaction card via gravure, screen andlithographic variations. FIG. 7J illustrates a preferred cross-sectionof a financial transaction card according to the invention describedherein. The inks of the present invention are placed on one or moresides of polyvinyl chloride and laminated together with magneticstripes, printed and/or non-printed core layers, and overlaminatelayers. The present invention allows for the easy production ofIR-blocking and/or absorbing financial transaction cards withoutadhesives and/or subassemblies.

After placing the layers of the financial transaction card together inregistration (or some variation thereof that is apparent to one havingordinary skill in the art), the layers are laminated in a stacklamination unit for approximately 13 minutes at about 300° F. to about310° F. under pressure and then cooled for an additional 13 minutes atabout 50° F. to about 60° F. The resulting card is approximately 30 milsand possesses good durability and sufficiently blocks infrared lightfrom between about 800 nm to 1200 nm with an optical density of greaterthan 1.3.

The printing method is typically chosen based on the composition of thevarious formulations outlined above. Various printing methods maypreferably include gravure, silkscreen and lithographic processes,although ink-jet, roll-coating and flexographic methods may be utilizedas well. The inks and/or substrates of the present embodiment and theirplacement and thickness can vary to accommodate different types of coresubstrates and thicknesses thereof. In addition, PVC is preferablyutilized as a printable substrate. However, other substrates such asPETG, polycarbonate and PET may be utilized provided there are at leastslight differences in refractive index between the ink and thesubstrate.

Preferable examples of inks of the present invention described abovewith reference to combinations of infrared phthalocyanine dye or dyes,infrared phosphors and quantum dot materials are described in Examples5-10, below.

In a further embodiment of the present invention, fibers of variousmaterials are used either in a continuous manner or single fibers can beincorporated into a wide variety of materials. The present inventioncontemplates, for example, natural fibers, synthetic fibers, copolymerfibers, chemical fibers, metal fibers, and/or the like. Examples ofthese fibers may be nylon, polyester, cotton, wool, silk, casein fiber,protein fiber, acetalyated staple, ethyl cellulose, polyvinylidenechloride, polyurethane, acetate, polyvinyl alcohol, triacetate, glass,wood, rock wool, carbon, inorganic fibers, and/or the like. Such fiberscan be incorporated or mixed into other types of materials such as paperpulp, plastic label stock, plastic materials, and the like. Suchmaterials can be used alone in a continuous manner or can be used asmono- or di-filaments in other materials.

Moreover, the infrared materials that are incorporated into plastics canbe used with a wide variety of materials, such as, for example, nylon,acrylic, epoxy, polyester, bismaleimide, polyamide, polyimide, styrene,silicone, vinyl, ABS, polycarbonate, nitrile, and/or the like. As such,the compounds that are incorporated into fibers, plastics, film and/orthe like, may be processed directly to a suitable form in a single- ormulti-process application. Such compounds can be added into aformulation in the form of a single ingredient or in the form of amaster-batch that is then processed in a similar manner to normalprocessing operations of compounds. Processing of such compoundsincludes the use of continuous mixers, two- or three-roll mills,extrusion, and/or other melt-compounding methods of dispersion. While inan exemplary embodiment, the thread can be woven or non-woven, theinfrared materials may be extruded directly into a thermoplastic matrixand drawn directly into the form of a thread that can be used in acontinuous manner or sectioned in the form of a fiber or plastic film.

The exemplary infrared compounds are deposited onto films of variouscompositions and can be used in most card applications. Moreover, theinfrared compounds in accordance with the present invention can be usedalone or blended with other materials at ranges from 0.001 to 50.0 partsby weight, but most preferable from 1.0 to 15.0 parts by weight.

A particularly preferred infrared compound is a multilayer polymericfilm manufactured by 3M Company (Minneapolis, Minn.), and described inU.S. Pat. No. 5,882,774 entitled “Optical Film”, U.S. Pat. No. 6,045,894entitled “Clear to Colored Security Film”, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,049,419entitled “Multilayer Infrared Reflecting Optical Body”, each of which isincorporated herein by reference in their entireties. Specifically, themultilayer polymeric film is either a birefringement dielectricmultilayer film or an isotropic dielectric multilayer film designed toreflect infrared radiation, i.e., electromagnetic radiation commonlyknown to have a wavelength longer than visible light, specifically aboveabout 700 nm.

The particularly preferred film utilized in the present inventioncomprises at least two layers and is a dielectric optical film havingalternating layers of a material having a high index of refraction and amaterial having a low index of refraction. Although the film may beeither birefringement or isoptropic, it is preferably birefringement,and is designed to allow the construction of multilayer stacks for whichthe Brewster angle is very large or is nonexistent for the polymer layerinterfaces. This feature allows for the construction of multilayermirrors and polarizers whose reflectivity for p-polarized lightdecreases slowly with angle of incidence, is independent of angle ofincidence, or increases with angle of incidence away from the normal. Asa result, the multilayer films have high reflectivity over a widebandwidth.

Specific examples of such films are described in U.S. patent Ser. No.08/402,201, filed Mar. 10, 1995, and U.S. patent Ser. No. 09/006,601entitled “Modified Copolyesters and Improved Multilayer ReflectiveFilm”, filed on Jan. 13, 1998. In addition, U.S. Pat. No. RE 3,034,605describes films which prevent higher order harmonics that prevent colorin the visible region of the spectrum. Other suitable films include thefilms described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,360,659, which describes a twocomponent film having a six layer alternating repeating unit thatsuppresses reflections in the visible spectrum (about 380 nm to about770 nm) while reflecting light in the infrared wavelength region ofbetween about 770 nm to about 2000 nm.

Multilayer polymeric films can include hundreds or thousands of thinlayers and may contain as many materials as there are layers in thestack. For ease of manufacturing, preferred multilayer films have only afew different materials. A preferred multilayer film, as noted above,includes alternating layers of a first polymeric material having a firstindex of refraction, and a second polymeric material of a second indexof refraction that is different from that of the first material. Theindividual layers are typically on the order of about 0.05 pm to about0.45 pm thick. Preferably, the number of individual layers in the opticfilm may preferably range from about 80 to about 1000 layers, althoughother numbers are contemplated in the present invention. In addition,the optical film may be as low as about 0.5 mil thick to as high asabout 20.0 mils thick.

The multilayer films useful in the present invention may comprisealternating layers of crystalline naphthalene dicarboxylic acidpolyester and another selected polymer, such as copolyester orcopolycarbonate, wherein each of the layers have a thickness of lessthan about 0.5 pm. Specifically, polyethylene 2,6-naphthalate (PEN),polybutylene 2,6-naphthalate (PBN), or polyethylene terephthalate (PET)are typically used. Adjacent pairs of layers (one having a high index ofrefraction and the other a low index) preferably have a total opticalthickness that is ½ of the wavelength of the light desired to bereflected. However, other ratios of the optical thicknesses within thelayer pairs may be chosen as is apparent to one having ordinary skill inthe art. A preferable optic film may be as low as about 0.5 mil havingalternating layers of PET and polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA).

Although the optical film described above is particularly preferred, anyother optical film may be utilized in the present invention thateffectively absorbs, refracts, diffuses, reflects or otherwise blockselectromagnetic radiation of a range or a plurality of ranges ofwavelengths, but transmits electromagnetic radiation of another range orplurality of wavelengths, such as, for example, blocking thetransmission of infrared radiation, but transmitting visible radiation,and the present invention should not be limited as herein described,Other suitable optical films may be utilized as apparent to one havingordinary skill in the art.

The present invention will now be illustrated in greater detail withreference to the following examples, comparative examples, test examplesand use examples. As disclosed in the examples, tests and graphs herein,the resulting inks sufficiently block IR radiation from phototransistordetection. It is understood that the present invention is not limitedthereto. For example, one skilled in the art will appreciate that, inany of the examples, the ink may contain other materials for differentoptical effects or authentication purposes.

Example 1

The present example includes about 2% Epolin VII-164 dye and about 98%Tech Mark Mixing Clear, produced by Sericol, Inc. 980.0 g of Tech Marksolvent evaporative screen ink is mixed on a high-speed disperser. Whilemixing, 20.0 g of Epolight VII-164 dye is dissolved completely. Theresulting ink has a viscosity of about 3.2 Pa·S at 25 C degrees and isprinted using a screen process. The screen process includes a 305polymer screen onto both sides of clear PVC 13.0 mil film.

Example 2

The following ink was produced by adding about 15.0 lbs of EpolightVII-164 and about 20.0 lbs of Epolight VI-30 to about 965 lbs. of TMMixing Clear. The mixture was dispersed for about 40 minutes. Theresulting mixture was coated on PVC core plastic using an 80 line/cmpolyester screen. The resulting coating exhibited high absorbtivity from780 nm to 1070 nm with low visible absorption. Card core, magneticstripe and lamitate were assembled and the entire assembly was placed inBurckle Stack Lamination Unit at a temperature of about 280 F

Example 3

A concentrate of about 30.0 g. Epolight VII-172 was blended with about700.0 g. of polyvinylchloride plastic. The resulting mixture wasextruded at about 260 F, air cooled and pelletized. About 1.0 lb of theresulting pellets were combined with about 99.0 lbs of PVC. KlocknerPentaplast provided calendered sheets of approximately 0.013 inches.Cards were fabricated using said sheets. These cards exhibitedsufficient absorption in the IR region from 800 nm to 1000 nm. The cardswere detected by a Sankyo ATM capture device.

Example 4

Multi-Layer PET plastic with sufficient optical properties was combinedinto a card construction. The PET plastic was provided by 3M Co.(Minneapolis, Minn.), as described above. The resultant card exhibitedsufficient optics such that an ATM device detected the card.

Example 5

Ink containing about 37.0 wt. % 2-ethoxy-ethyl-proprionate was combinedwith about 27.0 wt. % VMCH vinyl resin. The ink further comprised about0.0015 wt. % of a mixture of about 0.00075 wt. % Indigo 5547aphthalocyanine dye, obtained from Indigo Science, Newark N.J., having anabsorption peak of about 850 nm and about 0.0009 wt. ‘)/0 Indigo 1000aphthalocyanine dye, also obtained from Indigo Science, having anabsorption peak of about 1000 nm, About 0.00003 wt. quantum dot materialhaving about C 17 assymetric along the Y-Axis ligands were added. Aninorganic phosphor containing Y, Yb, Tm, and Yt oxide ab obout 0.005 wt.% was added. About 500 ppm 3-amino-propyl triethoxy silane was included.The resulting ink was screen printed on a solvent-evaporative screenpress on both sides of a PVC substrate and laminated at about 305° F.for 13 minutes.

Example 6

Ink having the above concentrations of phthalocyanine dyes, quantum dotmaterial and inorganic phosphors was combined with about 16.0 wt. %vinyl VMCA resin and about 88.0 wt. % methyl ethyl ketone to make an inkfor gravure printing. The mixture was printed on both sides of 7.0 milPVC, and laminated to form a financial transaction card, as describedabove in Example 5.

Example 7

Ink containing the above concentrations of phthalocyanine dyes, quantumdot material and inorganic phosphors were combined and milled with about22.0 wt. % nitro-polyamide resin containing about 18.0 wt. % ethylacetate, about 14.0 wt. % n-propyl acetate, about 7.0 wt. % ethylalcohol, about 3.0 wt. % n-propanol and about 19.0 wt. % methyl ethylketone solvents. The mixture was gravure printed on both sides of 7.0mil PVC layer and laminated to form a financial transaction card, asdescribed above in Example 5.

Example 8

Ink containing the above concentrations of phthalocyanine dyes, quantumdot material and inorganic phosphors were combined with about 20.0 wt. %acrylic resin and about 34.0 wt. % MEK. The mixture was gravure printedon 7.0 mil PETG and laminated to form a financial transaction card, asdescribed above in Example 5,

Example 9

Ink containing the above concentrations of phthalocyanine dyes, quantumdot material and inorganic phosphors was combined with about 98.0 wt. %Serical TM-MX and screen printed on 7.0 mil PVC using a polyester325-mesh screen.

Example 10

Ink containing approximately 10 times the concentration by wt. % ofphthalocyanine dyes, quantum dot material and inorganic phosphors wascombined in a three roll mill using a mixture of about 18.0 wt. % gelledand free-flow linseed alkyd resins and adjusted to printing viscosityand tack with about 17.0 wt. deodorized kerosene (Magisol 52). Themixture was lithographically printed on both sides of 10 mil PVC, driedovernight and laminated as described above in Example 5.

Additional Examples

Additional examples of IR ink formulations are disclosed in FIG. 13. TheIR ink examples in FIG. 13 exhibit a visible green color. Moreover, FIG.14 shows measurements related to these exemplary cards, including, forcertain wavelength ranges, transmission density, ATM readability and ISOcompliance. FIG. 15 shows exemplary test results for the exemplary greencards wherein samples of the cards were inserted into ATMs of variousmanufacturers. The tests resulted in positive ATM detection of theexemplary cards. Furthermore, FIG. 16 shows an example of thetransmission density of exemplary green cards in a graph of percenttransmission v. wavelength (the graph also indicates the ISOspecifications for the card).

FIGS. 17A-17I show exemplary test results for various card embodimentsin a graph of percent transmission v. wavelength (nm). For example, withrespect to FIG. 17A, the quality assurance of IR ink on PVC with no textis tested wherein a curve represents one of four corners of an exemplarycard. Subsequent curves represent another card sample which was selectedafter an interval of card production, such as, for example, after about50 cards. FIG. 17B shows the percent transmission of differentwavelengths of light through cards having different ink formulations,wherein each curve represents a card with a different ink formulation.

FIGS. 17C-17I represent various spectra of films, coatings, cards, etc.which demonstrate the ability of the materials used in the cardconstructions to block sufficient quantities of infrared radiation andtransmit visible light in order to produce cards described in theembodiment. The mechanism of blocking may be absorption, reflection,diffusion, dispersion or other methods of blocking radiation in theelectromagnetic spectrum.

In addition to the IR inks, the optically recognizable compound mayalternatively be a film or hot mirror which also blocks (absorbs orreflects) infrared light, but transmits all other wavelengths of light.In an exemplary embodiment, the film is set between the front sheet 10and back sheet 12. FIG. 4 is a graph of energy v. wavelength for thereflection and transmission of an exemplary IR film in accordance withan exemplary embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 shows that,while the visible light is transmitted through the film, the infraredlight is blocked at higher wavelengths and a substantial amount ofinfrared light is reflected.

The optically recognizable compounds may be incorporated into plasticproducts, films, products, documents or other articles which may inhibitdetection via phototransistors, CCD's, and/or the like. The material canbe incorporated into a transaction card via a film, plastic, printingink, coating or other application medium by grinding or the use ofdispersed or deposited material into a liquid, paste or other type ofmedium. To minimize environmental damage to the ink, such as the inkbeing scratched, the ink is preferably applied directly onto the plasticsheets under the laminate (described below in step 170). Moreover, theinfrared ink may be applied on the inside or outside surface of theplastic sheets.

In an exemplary embodiment, incorporating the optically recognizablecompound into an article may not require a separate printing unit,modifications to existing processing equipment or an additionaloperational step. Particularly, the fabrication of the articles, such asa transaction card, utilizes existing equipment which incorporatecolorants anyway, so the application of the optically recognizablecompounds to the existing colorants do not add extra equipment or stepsto the process.

In a further exemplary embodiment, the optically recognizable compoundsblock light which is detectable by machines. More particularly, themachines suitably detect the presence of a card via infraredinterference at one or several wavelengths. In an exemplary embodiment,detection of materials may include the production of a visual effectwhen the materials are interrogated with invisible infrared radiationfrom the proper instrument, and when such radiation contacts theinfrared material, a visual effect, such as a colored light, can beseen. Alternatively, the materials may be detected by a remote detectorthat will indicate the presence of the materials. Detection orauthentication of the materials occurs above and below the stimulationwavelength of the reading device. As such, once the opticallyrecognizable material has been detected, the detection device may thenprovide the user with a positive identification signal, which ispreferably located on or near the detection device.

In an exemplary embodiment, the detection of IR materials trigger thesensors in ATM machines. In particular, with respect to FIG. 8, thepresent invention allows for the passage of a greater percentage ofvisible light (from about 400 nm to 700 nm), which allows the card toappear translucent in nature, while allowing for the blockage of certainlight (from about 700 nm and above) to allow the phototransistors inATM's to detect that a card has been inserted into the carriagemechanism. As discussed above, an exemplary ATM sensing device includesan IRED, a filter and a phototransmitter.

In addition to triggering the sensors in ATM machines, translucent card5 can be used with any magnetic stripe or smart card reader. The readersystem can include a card reader/writer, a point-of-sale terminal, ATMor any other acceptance device. In an exemplary embodiment, card 5 isused in conjunction with a reader which, not only detects the existenceof the card, but also illuminates the transparent portion of card 5 whenthe card is inserted into the reader. The illumination source can beeither an incandescent or solid state source (infrared emitting diode orlaser). In operation, when the card is inserted into the acceptancedevice, the edge of the card presses against the illumination assembly(or activates a switch, interrupts a beam, etc.). Depending upon theapplication of the card, the illumination source can be under thecontrol of the acceptance device or external software. Thus, theillumination source can flash or display a particular color if directedby the external software program. Additionally, depending on thestructure of the card, the illumination source could be used to excitean embedded design useful for security or product enhancement.

As discussed above, the optically recognizable compounds may beincorporated into any type of article. An exemplary article is atransaction card which may itself include any number of numerousfeatures. In an exemplary embodiment, the present invention includes,generally, a transaction card 5 comprised of base containing opaque,transparent or translucent plastic layers 10, 12 and multiple featuresaffixed to the card 5 such as text 30, 32, 34, logos 50, embossedcharacters 35, magnetic stripe 42, signature field 45, holographic foil15, IC chip 20 and opacity gradient 25 (FIGS. 1 and 2).

Card 5 also includes an optically recognizable compound, describedabove, for allowing the transparent or translucent transaction card 5 tobe recognized by card reading devices, such as ATMs, and/or for allowingthe transparent transaction card 5 to be recognized and counted duringcard fabrication. The optically recognizable compound on transparentcard 5 is a substantially invisible or translucent infrared ink, mirroror film which blocks (absorbs or reflects) infrared light but transmitsall other wavelengths of light (see FIG. 4). Card 5 can be used forcredit, charge, debit, access, identification, information storage,electronic commerce and/or other functions.

With respect to FIG. 3, to fabricate card 5 having a front and backsurface in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention, a front sheet 10 and back sheet 12 (FIGS. 1 and 2) consistingof a plastic substrate such as, for example, clear core PVC, areproduced (step 100). One skilled in the art will appreciate that sheets10 and 12 of card 5 may be any suitable transparent, translucent and/oropaque material such as, for example, plastic, glass, acrylic and/or anycombination thereof. Each sheet 10, 12 is substantially identical and ispreferably about 3′×4′ (622 mm×548 mm) and about 0.005-0.350 inches, ormore preferably 0.01-0.15 inches or 13.5 mil thick.

With respect to FIG. 7A, the fabrication of the individual card sheetsincludes either direct layout (9 layers) of film or the use of asub-assembly (5 layers). An exemplary sub-assembly consists of 5 layersof film with room temperature tack adhesive applied over thermoset andthermoplastic adhesives. The resulting cards comprise (from the cardfront towards the card back) 2.0 mil outer laminate (PVC,polyvinylchloride) having the holographic foil, embossed surface, chipand other indicia on its surface, 9.0 mil printed PVC core with printside out (card front), 2.0 mil PVC adhesive, 1.7 mil PET GS (extrusioncoated polyethyleneterephthalate gluable/stampable) manufactured by D&K(525 Crossen, Elk Grove Village, Ill. 60007), 2.0 mil PET IR blockingfilm, 1.7 mil PET GS. 2.0 mil PET adhesive, 9.0 mil printed PVC corewith the print side out (card back), and 2.0 mil outer back laminatewith a signature panel, applied magnetic stripe and other indicia.Optimally, the PET IR blocking film is fabricated in the middle of thelayers to balance the card and minimize warping of the resulting cardproduct. Other exemplary embodiments of the layers are shown in FIGS.7B-7H.

Specifically, FIG. 7G illustrates an alternate embodiment of theindividual transaction cards. As with FIG. 7A, card sheets may beconstructed as described in FIG. 7H. Each card sheet may include ninelayers of film or the use of a five layer subassembly. The resultingcards comprise (from the card front towards the card back) about 2.0 milouter laminate (PVC) having the holographic foil, embossed surface, chipand/or other indicia on its surface, about 9.0 mil printed PVC core withprint side out (card front), about 1.0 mil oriented PVC, about 3 miladhesive (1 mil PET with 1 mil adhesive on each side), about 2.0 mil PETIR blocking film, as described above, about 3.0 mil adhesive (1 mil PETwith 1 mil adhesive on each side), about 1.0 mil oriented PVC, about 9.0mil printed PVC core with print side out (card back), and about 2.0 milouter PVC laminate comprising a signature panel, applied magnetic stripeand/or any other indicia apparent to one having ordinary skill in theart. As with the card described in FIG. 7A, the PET IR blocking film isfabricated in the middle of the layers to balance the card and minimizewarping of the resulting card product.

The adhesive layers described above with reference to FIG. 7G (the 3.0mil adhesive) that may be disposed on either side of the 2.0 mil PET IRblocking film preferably comprise a first layer of a polyester (1.0 milPET) having second and third layers of a polyester-based adhesivedisposed on either side of the first layer of polyester. Thepolyester-based adhesive layers may each be about 1.0 mil. Preferably,the polyester-based adhesive layers exhibit excellent adhesion topolyester and PVC, in that it binds to both the PET IR blocking film onone side of the 3.0 mil adhesive and the 1.0 mil oriented PVC layer onthe other side. Specifically, a preferable material that may be used asthe polyester-based adhesive is Bemis Associates Inc. 5250 AdhesiveFilm. Alternatively, another preferably material that may be used as thepolyester-based adhesive is Transilwrap Company, Inc. Trans-Kote® CoreStock KRTY.

The card sheet of FIG. 7G, including the nine layers of film and/or theuse of a five layer subassembly, as described above, may be constructedtogether by a lamination process as is known to someone having ordinaryskill in the art using heat and pressure. A preferred method ofconstructing the cards as described in FIG. 7H utilizes a two-steplamination cycle, wherein a first hot step includes laminating thelayers of the cards together at a pressure of about 170 psi at atemperature of about 300° F. for about 24 minutes. A second stepincludes laminating the layers together at a pressure of about 400 psiat a diminished temperature of about 57° F. for about 16 minutes. Ofcourse, other methods of constructing the cards may be utilized.

Of course, other multilayer films may be utilized that incorporate anoptical film therein (as described above) for blocking light of one ormore ranges of electromagnetic radiation while allowing another range orranges of electromagnetic radiation to be transmitted therethrough. Themultilayer films may have any sequence of layers of any material andthickness to form individual transaction cards as herein defined.

FIG. 7I illustrates another exemplary card sheet construction accordingto the present invention. Specifically, FIG. 7I illustrates anothertransparent or translucent card having an IR blocking optical filmincorporated therein, as described above with reference to FIGS. 7A and7G. The card sheet construction defined below may be made via acoextrusion/lamination process. Specifically, the card sheet comprises alayer of a PET IR blocking optical film (about 2.0 mils), as describedabove. An EVA-based material (about 2.0 mils) may be coextruded ontoeach side of the IR blocking film to form a 3-layer subassembly. The3-layer subassembly may then be laminated on each side to a printed PVClayer (each about 11 mils). The card may further have PVC laminatelayers (each about 2.0 mils) disposed on sides of the printed PVC layersthereby forming outside layers of the card.

Preferable materials that may be utilized as the EVA-based material thatis coextruded to the PET IR blocking film are acid modified EVApolymers. The acid modified EVA polymers may preferably be Bynel® Series1100 resins. Typically, the Bynel® Series 1100 resins are available inpellet form and are used in conventional extrusion and coextrusionequipment designed to process polyethylene resins. The Bynel® Series1100 resins have a suggested maximum melting temperature of about 238°C. However, if adhesion results are inadequate, the melting temperaturemay be lowered. The remaining layers of the card may be laminated to thecard as described above, or via any other lamination process to form acard.

In addition, FIG. 7H illustrates another exemplary card sheetconstruction according to the present invention. Specifically, FIG. 7Hillustrates a transparent or translucent multilayer transaction cardhaving an IR blocking ink incorporated therein. The IR blocking ink maybe any ink having the characteristic of blocking IR radiation from beingtransmitted through the transaction card. Examples 1 and 2, noted above,describe two possible ink compositions that may be used. Of course,others may be used as well and the invention should not be limited asherein described.

The card sheet in FIG. 7H may comprise (from the card front to the cardback) an outer layer of about 2.0 mil PVC laminate having theholographic foil, embossed surface, chip, and/or other indicia on itssurface, about 13.0 mil printed PVC, about 2.0 mil PVC core, about 13.0mil printed PVC, and an outer layer of about 2.0 mil PVC laminatecomprising a signature panel, applied magnetic stripe and/or any otherindicia apparent to one having ordinary skill in the art. It should benoted that the PVC core layer (herein described, according to FIG. 7H,as being about 2.0 mil thick) may be optional, and may be included if athicker card is desired. Of course, the PVC core layer may be anythickness to create a transaction card having any thickness desired.These cards may be printed on the core PVC layer with IR blocking inkacross the entire surface of the layer according to the printing methodsdescribed above with respect to Examples 1 and 2, above. Of course, anyother method of printing or IR blocking ink may be utilized in thetransaction card according to the present invention.

After the card sheets are laminated, according to the method describedabove or via any other method, the sheets are cut into individual cardsby a known stamping process, including any necessary curing, burrowing,heating, cleaning, and/or sealing of the edges. Each individualtransaction card is about 2.5″×3.0″, and therefore conform to ISOstandards for transaction card shape and size.

Moreover, FIG. 11 details exemplary embodiments of layers/sheets forcard construction, including layer number, material, layer thickness (inmil), source/manufacturer of the material, comments regarding bondstrength data and total thickness (in mil). Additionally, with respectto FIG. 12A, the film bond strength is indicated on a graph of strength(lb/in) v. film bond for various film bonds. With respect to FIG. 12B,the bond strength at the film interfaces is indicated on a graph ofstrength (lb/in) v. film interface for various film interfaces.

After eventually combining the sheets (step 160), by preferably adheringthe front sheet 10 on top of the back sheet 12, the total thickness ofthe transaction card 5 is about 0.032 in. (32 mil.), which is within theISO thickness standard for smart cards. Because the IC chip 20 iseventually embedded into the surface of the substrate (step 195), andthe surface of chip 20 is coextensive with the outer surface of thefront sheet 10, the IC chip 20 does not affect the thickness of theoverall card 5. Moreover, the about 3′×4′ sheets include markings whichdefine the boundaries of the individual cards 5 which will be cut fromthe sheet. Each exemplary sheet yields over 50 transaction cards(typically 56 cards), wherein each card 5 is within the ISO card sizestandard, namely about 2″×3.5″.

In general, an exemplary process for construction of card 5 having an IRfilm includes chemical vapor deposition of PET film which has optimalvisible and infrared properties (step 105). The chemical deposition ispreformed by a Magnetron Machine manufactured by the Magnetron Company.With respect to FIG. 10, the process incorporates a roll chemical vapordeposition sputtering system with three coating zones. The Magnetronroll vapor deposition machine deposits evaporation batches containingAg, Au and Indium oxide onto optical grade polyethyleneterephthalateusing chemical vapor deposition. The Ag/Au/Indium layers are about 100angstroms each and, depending on the lower wavelength reflections, aboutthree to five layers exist. More details related to vacuum coating,solar coating and Magnetron sputtering can be found in, for example,“Handbook of Optical Properties, Volume I, Thin Films for OpticalCoatings” edited by Rolf Hummel and Karl H. Guenther, 1995, CRC Press,Inc, the entire contents of which is hereby incorporated by reference.

Next, plasma or flame treatment is applied to the PET film for surfacetension reduction of the film (step 110). During the deposition andassembly of the layers, the IR film is monitored to optimize the IRblocking spectrum. Thus, the film is then tested against a standard byusing a spectrophotometer to test the visible and infrared properties ofthe PET film (step 115). With respect to FIG. 9, a reflection andtransmission monitor with various optical components for vacuumevaporation in-line roll coating operations is utilized to monitor theIR film. In-line spectrophotometric monitoring is part of the vapordeposition process. Transmission at various wavelengths is monitoredduring the entire run. A tack adhesive is applied to PET GS(polyethyleneterephthalate-gluable/stampable) (step 120) and a pressurelaminate is applied to the Indium Oxide metal surface of the PET IRblocking film (step 125). Next, a tack adhesive is applied to the PETside of the IR blocking film (step 130) and a pressure laminate isapplied to the PET GS (step 135). Exemplary lamination conditionsinclude 280 F degrees and 600 psi for 22 minutes, then cooled underpressure for about 18 minutes. A heat seal adhesive is applied to bothouter sides of the PET GS, or alternatively, a PVC adhesive is appliedto both outer sides of the PET GS (step 140).

In an exemplary embodiment, certain compounds are printed over thesurface of sheets 10 and 12. One skilled in the art will appreciate thatthe printing of the text 30, 32, 34, logos 50, optically recognizableink and opacity gradient 25 may be applied to any surface of card 5 suchas, for example, the front 10 face, the rear 12 face, the inside oroutside surface of either face, between the two sheets of base materialand/or a combination thereof. Moreover, any suitable printing, scoring,imprinting, marking or like method is within the scope of the presentinvention.

The opacity gradient 25 and optically recognizable ink are printed ontothe sheets by a silk screen printing process (step 150). With respect tothe opacity gradient 25, the exemplary gradient is comprised of a silverpearl ink gradation having an ink stippling which is more dense at thetop of card 5 and gradually becomes less dense or clear as it approachesthe bottom of card 5. One skilled in the art will appreciate that theopacity gradient 25 can be any density throughout the gradient 25 andthe gradient 25 can traverse any direction across card 5 face. Theopacity gradient 25 can be formed by any substance which can provide asimilar gradient 25 on card 5. The exemplary ink gradient 25 for eachcard 5 is printed using known printing inks suitably configured forprinting on plastic, such as Pantone colors. In an exemplary embodiment,the ink used for the stippling 25 is a silver pearl ink and is appliedto the outside surface of each plastic sheet. Ink gradient 25 is printedon the surface of each of the sheets using a silk screen printingprocess which provides an opaque, heavier ink coverage or using offsetprinting process which provides halftone images in finer detail. Thewords “American Express” are printed in Pantone 8482 using a similarsilkscreen process.

More particularly, with respect to silk screen printing, artworkcontaining the desired gradient 25 is duplicated many times to match thenumber of individual cards 5 to be produced from the sheets. Theduplicated artwork is then suitably applied to a screen by any suitableknown in the art photo-lithographic process and the screen is thendeveloped. The screen is placed over the sheet and ink is suitablywashed across the surface of the screen. The exposed portions of thescreen allow the ink to pass through the screen and rest on the sheet inthe artwork pattern. If multiple colors are desired, this process can berepeated for each color. Moreover, other security features areoptionally silk printed on card 5 such as, for example, an invisible,ultraviolet charge card logo (visible in black light) is printed in aduotone of Pantone 307 and 297 using offset and silk screen presses.

The text 30, 32, 34 and logo 50 are printed on the outside surface ofeach sheet by a known printing process, such as an offset printingprocess (step 155) which provides a thinner ink coverage, but clearertext. More particularly, with respect to offset printing, the artwork isduplicated onto a metal plate and the metal plate is placed onto anoffset press printing machine which can print up to four colors during asingle run. The offset printed text includes, for example, a corporatename 30, a copyright notice 33, a batch code number 34, an “active thru”date 32, contact telephone numbers, legal statements (not shown) and/orthe like. The exemplary offset text is printed in 4DBC in opaque whiteink or a special mix of Pantone Cool Gray 11 called UV AMX Gray.

Because the resulting card 5 may be transparent, the text can be seenfrom both sides of card 5. As such, if the text is only printed on onesheet, the text may be obscured when viewing the text from the oppositeside of card 5 (in other words, viewing the text “through” the plasticsubstrate). To minimize the obscuring of the text, the front sheet 10 isprinted on its outside surface with standard format text and the backsheet 12 is printed on its outside surface with the same text, but thetext is in “reverse” format. The back 12 text is aligned with the texton the front face 10, wherein the alignment of the text is aided by card5 outline markings on the full sheet. Certain text or designs which maybe obscured by an compound of card 5 (magnetic stripe 40, chip 20, etc.)may be printed on only one sheet. For example, in an exemplaryembodiment, the corporate logo 50 is printed on only one sheet and islocated behind the IC chip 20, thereby being hidden from the front 10view and hiding at least a portion of the IC chip 20 from the back 12view. One skilled in the art will appreciate that any of the offsetprinting can occur on the outside or inside surface of the sheets.

The sheet of laminate which is applied to the back 12 of card 5 (step170) preferably includes rows of magnetic stripes 40, wherein eachmagnetic stripe 40 corresponds to an individual card 5. The magneticstripe 40 extends along the length of card 5 and is applied to the back12 surface, top portion of card 5 in conformity with ISO standards formagnetic stripe 40 size and placement. However, the magnetic stripe 40may be any width, length, shape, and placed on any location on card 5.The two track magnetic stripe 40, including the recorded information,can be obtained from, for example, Dai Nippon, 1-1, Ichigaya Kagacho1-chome, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-8001, Japan, Tel: Tokyo 03-3266-2111. inan exemplary embodiment, the magnetic stripe is applied to the outerlaminate using a tape layer machine which bonds the cold peel magneticstripe to the outer laminate roll with a rolling hot die and at suitablepressure. The roll is then cut into sheets at the output of the tapelayer before the card layers are assembled and the stripe is fused tothe card during the lamination process.

Although prior art magnetic stripes 40 in current use are black, in aparticularly exemplary embodiment, the magnetic stripe 40 of the presentinvention is a silver magnetic stripe 40. Exemplary silver magneticstripe 40 is 2750 oersted and also conforms to ISO standards. Moreover,the silver magnetic stripe 40 includes printing over the magnetic stripe40. The printing on the magnetic stripe 40 can include any suitabletext, logo 50, hologram foil 15 and/or the like; however, in anexemplary embodiment, the printing includes text indicative of anInternet web site address. Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd (moreinformation about Dai Nippon can be found at www.dnp.co.jp) prints ahologram or text on the magnetic stripe using, for example, the DaiNippon CPX10000 card printer which utilizes dye sublimation retransfertechnology having a thermal head which does not contact the cardsurface. The card printer utilizes the double transfer technology toprint the image with the thermal head over a clear film and thenre-transferring the printed image onto the actual card media by heatroller. The printing of information on the surface of the magneticstripe 40 is preformed by, for example, American Banknote Holographics,399 Executive Blvd., Elmsford, N.Y. 10523, (914) 592-2355. Moreinformation regarding the printing on the surface of a magnetic stripe40 can be found in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,684,795 issued on Aug.4, 1987 to United States Banknote Company of New York, the entirecontents of which is herein incorporated by reference.

After the desired printing is complete and the magnetic stripe applied,the front 10 and back 12 sheets are placed together (step 160), and thesheets are preferably adhered together by any suitable adhering process,such as a suitable adhesive. One skilled in the art will appreciatethat, instead of printing on two sheets and combining the two sheets, asingle plastic card 5 can be used, wherein card 5 is printed on oneside, then the same card 5 is re-sent through the printer for printingon the opposite side. In the present invention, after adhering thesheets together, a sheet of lamination, approximately the samedimensions as the plastic sheets, namely 3′×4′, is applied over thefront 10 and back 12 of card 5. After the laminate is applied over thefront 10 and back 12 of the combined plastic sheets (step 170), card 5layers are suitably compressed at a suitable pressure and heated atabout 300 degrees, at a pressure of between 90-700 psi, with a suitabledwell time to create a single card 5 device. The aforementioned cardfabrication can be completed by, for example, Oberthur Card Systems, 15James Hance Court, Exton, Pa.

The cards may be constructed by laminating the layers together usingheat and pressure. For example, the transaction cards may be rolllaminated with adhesives, platen laminated, or other lamination processto laminate the cards together. Processing temperatures may range fromabout 200° F. to about 500′ depending on the material used in the layersof the multilayer transaction card (such as PETG, polycarbonate, orother like materials). For PVC, the temperatures commonly range fromabout 270° F. to about 320° F. Pressures may range from about 50 psi toabout 600 psi. Processing times for laminating the transaction cards ofthe present invention may range from a few seconds (1-10 seconds, forexample if roll laminated with adhesives) to up to about an hour ifpolycarbonate is used as a material in the multilayer transaction card.For PVC materials, a hot cycle of about 20 to 30 minutes may be used.Cool cycles may last about 15 to about 25 minutes for PVC materials.

In an exemplary embodiment, and especially for IR ink cards, such as,for example, the card described with respect to FIG. 7H, the card layersare fused together in a lamination process using heat and pressure.During the hot press phase, the press is heated to about 300 F degreesand the pressure builds to about 1000 psi and holds for about 90seconds. The pressure then ramps up to about 350 psi over an about 30second period and holds for 16 minutes at the same temperature, namely300 F degrees. The card is then transferred to a cold press that is atabout 57 F degrees. The pressure builds to about 400 psi and is held forabout 16 minutes as chilled water of about 57 F degrees is circulated inthe plates. The cold press then unloads the card.

With respect to FIGS. 1 and 2, after the laminate is applied, asignature field is applied to the back surface 12 of card 5 (step 175)and the holographic foil 15 is applied to the front 10 of card 5 (step190). With respect to signature field 45, although prior art signaturefields are formed from adhering a paper-like tape to the back 12 of card5, in an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the signaturefield 45 is a translucent box measuring about 2″ by ⅜″ and is applied tothe card using a hot-stamp process. The verification of the signature insignature field 45 by the merchant is often a card 5 issuer requirementfor a merchant to avoid financial liability for fraudulent use of card5. As such, the translucent signature field 45 on the transparent card 5not only allows the clerk to view at least a portion of the signaturefield 45 from the front of the card 5, but the signature view alsoencourages the clerk to turn over card 5 and verify the authenticity ofthe signature with the signed receipt.

After the card sheets are laminated, the sheets are cut into individualcards 5 (step 180) by a known stamping process, including any necessarycuring, burrowing, heating, cleaning and/or sealing of the edges. Theindividual transaction cards 5 are about 3″×4″ and conform to ISOstandards for transaction card 5 shape and size. In an exemplaryembodiment, the laminated sheets of 56 cards are suitably cut in half ona guillotine device, resulting in two half-sheets of 28 cards. Thehalf-sheets are loaded onto a card punch machine which aligns the sheetsto a die (x and y axes) using predetermined alignment marks visible tothe optics of the machine. The half-sheets are then fed under the punchin seven steps. Particularly, a fixed distance feed is followed byanother optic sensor search to stop the feed at the pre-printedalignment mark, then the machine punches a row of four cards out at onetime. After die cutting and finishing according to standard processing,the IR reflection properties are verified in-line (step 185) beforeapplication of the holographic foil 15.

With respect to the application of an exemplary holographic foil, theholographic foil 15 is adhered to card 5 (step 190) by any suitablemethod. In an exemplary embodiment, a substantially square steel die,which is about 1¼″×1¼″ with rounded corners and a 0.0007″ crown acrossthe contacting surface, stamps out the individual foils 15 from a largesheet of holographic foil 15. The die is part of a hot stamp machinesuch that the die is sent through a sheet of foil 15, cutting the foil15 around a particular image and immediately applying the foil 15 withheat to the front 10 surface of card 5 after the card has beenlaminated. The die temperature is in the range of about 300 F.°+/−10F.°. The dwell time is approximately ½ seconds and the application speedis set based upon the individual hot stamp applicator; however, theforegoing temperature and dwell is identified for a speed of 100 cardsper minute. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,206,965; 4,421,380; 4,589,686; and4,717,221 by Stephen P. McGrew provide more details about hot stampingof a holographic image and are hereby incorporated by reference.

With respect to the holographic foil 15, the foil 15 can be any color,contain any hologram, can be applied to any location on card 5, and canbe cut to any size, shape and thickness. In an exemplary embodiment, theholographic foil 15 sheet preferably includes a gray adhesive on thebottom side and a blue, mirror-like, three-dimensional holographicsurface on the top side containing numerous holographic images about1¼″×1¼″ each. The exemplary hologram includes a 360 degree viewabilityand diffracts a rainbow of colors under white light. The full colorhologram is created by, for example, American Banknote Holographics.

The corners of the individual foil 15 are preferably rounded to minimizethe likelihood that the foil 15 will peal away from the surface of card5. Moreover, when applied to the card, the blue holographic surfacefaces away from card 5 while the gray adhesive side is applied to card 5surface. The top surface of the holographic foil 15 may be created byany suitable method such as reflection holographics, transmissionholographics, chemical washing, the incorporation of mirror compoundsand/or any combination thereof. The holographic foil 15 can befabricated by, for example, American Banknote Holographics, Inc. locatedat 1448 County Line Road, Huntingdon Valley, Pa., 19006.

The exemplary holographic foil includes various layers. One skilled inthe art will appreciate that any ordering, combination and/orcomposition of these layers which provides a similar holographic effectis still within the scope of the present invention. In an exemplaryembodiment, the holographic transfer foil structure includes thefollowing layers: 90 gauge polyester carrier, release coat, embossableresin, vacuum deposited aluminum, tie coat and size coat. During thetransfer process, the embossable resin, vacuum deposited aluminum, tiecoat and size coat layers are deposited onto a substrate.

In an exemplary embodiment, the sheets of holographic foil 15 aretransmission holograms suitably created by interfering two or more beamsof converging light, namely an object beam and reference beam, from a 20watt Argon laser at 457.9 nm, onto a positive photoemulsion (spun coatplates using shiply photoresist). The system records the interferencepattern produced by the interfering beams of light using, for example, a303A developer. The object beam is a coherent beam reflected from, ortransmitted through, the object to be recorded which is preferably athree-dimensional mirror. The reference beam is preferably a coherent,collimated light beam with a spherical wave front 10.

The incorporation of the holographic foil 15 onto a transaction card 5provides a more reliable method of determining the authenticity of thetransaction card 5 in ordinary white light, namely by observing if thehologram has the illusion of depth and changing colors. Thus, to allowthe hologram to be viewed with ordinary, white light, when the hologramis recorded onto the transaction card 5, the image to be recorded isplaced near the surface of the substrate. Moreover, the hologram is beembossed on a metalized carrier, such as the holographic foil 15, oralternatively the hologram may be cast directly onto the transparentplastic material. When formed on the clear plastic material, thehologram is made visible by the deposit of a visible substance over theembossed hologram, such as a metal or ink. More information regardingthe production of holograms on charge cards 5 or the production ofholographic foil 15 can be found in, for example, U.S. Pat. No.4,684,795 issued on Aug. 4, 1987 to United States Banknote Company ofNew York or from the American Banknote Holographics, Inc. web site atwww.abnh.com, both of which are herein incorporated by reference.

In an exemplary embodiment, the application of holographic foil ontovinyl credit cards is accomplished by using a metallized credit cardfoil. The foil is un-sized, metallized, embossable, abrasion, andchemical resistant hot stamping foil on a 1.0 mil (92 gauge) polyestercarrier. All of the exemplary materials are tinted with raw materialssupplier color code #563 (blue). The foil is vacuum metallized withaluminum and has an optical density range of about 1.60 to 2.00. Theoptimum foil is free of visible defects and particulate matter. The foilcontains release characteristics of about 0 to 7 grams based upon arelease testing unit having a die face of 300 F degrees, 80 psi, 1.0seconds dwell, 0.1 seconds delay in the removal of the carrier at a 45degree angle. An exemplary base material is capable of receiving apermanent, high fidelity (based upon an embossing die of 100%, having atleast 70% diffraction efficiency) impression of the holographic imagesurface by embossing with a hard nickel die in the range of about 1600pounds per linear inch at about 100 pounds air pressure and in the rangeof about 200 to 350 F degrees die temperatures. When testing theembossibility of the base material, the testing includes a primary andsecondary image to assure the embossable coating is capable of producingan optimal secondary image.

With respect to the mechanical and chemical durability of theholographic foil, the foil resists abrasions. As such, after sizing andstamping the foil onto the vinyl credit card, the transferred hologramwithstands about 100 cycles on the Taber Abrader using CS-10 wheels andabout a 500 gram load before signs of breakthrough. The foil resistsscuffing such that the foil withstands about 6 cycles on Taber Abraderunder the same conditions without any substantial visual marks,scratches or haze. The holographic foil also resists any substantialevidence of cracking the vinyl in the hologram area when embossed on aDC 50000 encoder or an equivalent system. Moreover, the embossed,un-sized foil on the polyester carrier is capable of being stretched 15%without cracking of the base coat. Moreover, the exemplary vinyl cardwith the exemplary hologram withstands 15 minutes in an oven at 110 C.°with the image clearly visible after the test. Additionally, theexemplary hologram does not show any visible effects after 5 cycles of 8hours at 0° and 16 hours at 60 C.°.

The exemplary holograms on the vinyl cards also resist plasticizers,alkalis, acids and solvents. In particular, the cards with hologramswithstand immersion in warm liquid plasticizers (typically dioctylphthalate) up to the point of severe swelling of the card. The image onthe card is not substantially affected by contact with plasticized vinylfor a period of 5 days at 60 C.°. With respect to alkalis, the hologramson the cards withstand approximately 1 hour immersion in 10% ammoniumhydroxide at room temperature without deterioration. Moreover, thehologram does not show substantial deterioration after 50 hours ofimmersion at room temperature in artificial alkaline perspiration (10%sodium chloride, 1% sodium phosphate, 4% ammonium carbonate, and pH8.0). With respect to acids, the exemplary holograms on the cardssubstantially withstand approximately 1 hour immersion in 10% aceticacid at room temperature without substantial deterioration. Moreover,the exemplary hologram substantially withstand, without substantialdeterioration, 50 hours immersion at room temperature in artificialacetic perspiration (10% sodium chloride, 1% sodium phosphate, 1% lacticacid, pH 3.5).

With respect to solvents, the exemplary holograms on cards substantiallywithstand the following: ethylene glycol (100% and 50% in water) with nosubstantial effects after 4 hours at room temperature, ethyl alcohol(100% and 50% in water) with ino substantial effect after 4 hours atroom temperature, methyl ethyl ketone has no substantial effect after 1minute at room temperature, toluene has no substantial effect up tosevere swelling of the card (30 minutes at room temperature), water hasno substantial effect after 16 hours at 60 C.° and concentrated laundrydetergent has no substantial effect after 20 hours at room temperature.

Moreover, the exemplary holograms on the vinyl cards do not showsubstantial effects after being washed and dried in a commercial washerand dryer inside a pants pocket at permanent press settings.

The charge card substrate is comprised of a vinyl base or othercomparable type material which is suitably capable of accepting a hotstamping of a hologram without substantially violating the presentcomposition of the hologram or its coatings. When adhering the hologramto the vinyl card, the coating exhibits a consistent blush and isuniform in color, viscosity and free of contamination. The adhesion ofthe hologram to the card is also sufficiently strong enough such thatthe application of Scotch 610 tape over the hologram which is removed ata 45° angle will not result in a significant amount of foil removed fromthe substrate.

With respect to the brightness of the image, a diffraction reading isobtained at a minimum of about 2 microwatts on the registration blocks.Moreover, with respect to image quality, the images are substantiallyfree of defects such as large spots, scratches, wrinkles, mottle, haze,and/or any other defects that substantially distort the image.

The final exemplary product is slit at a width of 1 53/64″+/− 1/64″ andlength of 10,000 images per roll. The registration block is located nomore than about 5/64″ from the edge of the slit material. All finishedrolls are wound with the metal side facing in on a 3.0″ ID core with amaximum of 3 splices permitted per finished reel and the registrationblocks are 0.125″×0.125″ square.

After stamping out the individual cards 5 and applying the holographicfoil, the IC chip 20 is applied to card 5 (step 195) by any suitablemethod, such as adhesive, heat, tape, groove and/or the like. Moreparticularly, a small portion of the front 10 of card 5 is machined outusing, for example, a milling process. The milling step removes about0.02 mils of plastic from the front 10 surface, such that the routedhole cuts into the two core layers of plastic, but does not go throughthe last outer laminate layer of plastic, thereby forming a 5235HSTpocket. IC chip 20 is a 5235 palladium plated with silver, rather thanthe standard gold plating. IC chip 20 is applied to the card using aprocess known as “potting”. Any suitable adhesive, such as anon-conductive adhesive, is placed into the machined hole and the ICchip 20 is placed over the adhesive such that the top surface of the ICchip 20 is substantially even with the front 10 surface of card 5.Suitable pressure and heat is applied to the IC chip 20 to ensure thatthe IC chip 20 is sufficiently affixed to card 5. The IC chip 20 is anysuitable integrated circuit located anywhere on card 5. In an exemplaryembodiment, the IC chip 20 structure, design, function and placementconforms to ISO standards for IC chips 20 and smart cards 5. The IC chip20 may be obtained from, for example, Siemens of Germany.

After applying the holographic foil 15 and the IC chip 20 to card 5,certain information, such as account number 35 and “active thru” 32 date(not shown), are preferably embossed into card 5 (step 200) by knownembossing methods. The embossing can be completed by, for example,Oberthur Card Systems. Although any information can be embossed anywhereon card 5, in a particularly exemplary embodiment, the account numbers35 are embossed through the holographic foil 15 to reduce thepossibility of the transfer of the holographic foil 15 to a counterfeitcard 5 for fraudulent use. Additionally, although prior art cards 5include a beginning and ending validity date, the present card 5 onlyincludes an “active thru” 32 date, namely a date in which the cardexpires.

While the foregoing describes an exemplary embodiment for thefabrication of card 5, one skilled in the art will appreciate that anysuitable method for incorporating text 30, 32, 34, logos 50, embossednumbers 35, a magnetic stripe 42, a signature field 45, holographic foil15, an IC chip 20 and opacity gradient 25 (see FIGS. 1 and 2) onto asubstrate is within the scope of the present invention. Particularly,the holographic foil 15, IC chip 20, logo 50, magnetic stripe 40,signature field 45 or any other compound may be affixed to any portionof card 5 by any suitable means such as, for example, heat, pressure,adhesive, grooved and/or any combination thereof.

The present invention has been described above with reference to anexemplary embodiment. However, those skilled in the art having read thisdisclosure will recognize that changes and modifications may be made tothe exemplary embodiment without departing from the scope of the presentinvention. For example, various steps of the invention may be eliminatedwithout altering the effectiveness of the invention. Moreover, othertypes of card fabrication, encoding and printing methods may be usedsuch as dye sublimation retransfer technology and/or double transfertechnology developed by Dai Nippon Printing Company of Japan. These andother changes or modifications are intended to be included within thescope of the present invention, as expressed in the following claims.

1-20. (canceled)
 21. A transaction card, comprising: a plurality ofprintable substrate layers; wherein at least one of the printablesubstrate layers comprises an infrared blocking material; and whereinthe printable substrate layers are laminated together.
 22. Thetransaction card of claim 21, wherein at least one of the printablesubstrate layers comprises a plastic polymeric substrate.
 23. Thetransaction card of claim 21, wherein at least one of the printablesubstrate layers comprises polyvinyl chloride (PVC).
 24. The transactioncard of claim 21, wherein the printable substrate layers aretransmissive to visible light.
 25. The transaction card of claim 21,wherein the infrared blocking material comprises a mixture of a phosphorcompound and a quantum dot compound.
 26. The transaction card of claim21, wherein the infrared blocking material comprises a mixture of a rareearth oxide compound and a quantum dot compound.
 27. The transactioncard of claim 21, wherein the infrared blocking material comprises anIR-absorbing compound.
 28. The transaction card of claim 21, wherein theinfrared blocking material comprises a mixture of two or more of thefollowing: a rare earth oxide compound, a quantum dot compound, aphosphor compound, and an IR-absorbing compound.
 29. The transactioncard of claim 21, wherein the infrared blocking material comprises amixture of at least two IR-absorbing phthalocyanine dyes.
 30. Thetransaction card of claim 21, wherein the infrared blocking material iscombined with a resin binder.
 31. A method of making a transaction card,comprising: forming an infrared blocking material on a first printablesubstrate layer that is transmissive to visible light; and laminatingthe first printable substrate layer together with one or more additionalprintable substrate layers to form a laminated transaction card, whereinthe additional printable substrate layers are transmissive to visiblelight such that the laminated transaction card is transmissive tovisible light.
 32. The method of claim 31, wherein infrared blockingmaterial is printed to the first printable substrate layer.
 33. Themethod of claim 31, further comprising forming the infrared blockingmaterial on both surfaces of the first printable substrate layer. 34.The method of claim 31, further comprising stacking the printablesubstrate layers together during lamination of the printable substratelayers.
 35. The method of claim 31, wherein the first printablesubstrate layer is laminated between at least two of the additionalprintable substrate layers.
 36. The method of claim 31, wherein at leastone of the printable substrate layers comprises a plastic polymericsubstrate.
 37. The method of claim 31, wherein at least one of theprintable substrate layers comprises polyvinyl chloride (PVC).
 38. Themethod of claim 31, wherein the infrared blocking material comprises anIR-absorbing compound.
 39. The method of claim 31, wherein the infraredblocking material comprises a mixture of two or more of the following: arare earth oxide compound, a quantum dot compound, a phosphor compound,and an IR-absorbing compound.
 40. The method of claim 31, wherein theinfrared blocking material comprises a mixture of at least twoIR-absorbing phthalocyanine dyes.